Friday afternoon buffet of factoids and thoughts

The weekend is almost here and there are still interesting things happening at practice while the folks at ProFootballFocus.com continue to feed me more material so that I can, in turn, feed you.

Here goes:

First, Colts starting running back Vick Ballard is out for the rest of the season after he suffered a knee injury in practice on Thursday. Coach Chuck Pagano said the injury was non-contact in nature in that Ballard put his foot in the ground and the knee gave out. Colts owner Jim Irsay said the team has placed Ballard on injured reserve.

That means the Colts are obviously lessened. Donald Brown and Ahmad Bradshaw are now asked to carry the load for Indianapolis. Kerwynn Williams will also be promoted from practice squad.

As to the Dolphins:

Jamar Taylor continues to sit out practice with his hernia/groin issue. Obviously, as he has not practiced in two weeks, he's nowhere near ready to play. At best, I would guess he'll be ready just prior to or after the bye. At best.

Dimitri Patterson (groin) was at practice today and will play, as has been reported here previously.

[Update: Patterson was limited in practice all week and is listed as questions, but again, he'll play. Wille Davis (toe) was limited in practice the whole week but is listed today as out, along with Pat Devlin (ankle) and Taylor].

Dolphins coach Joe Philbin said right guard Danny Watkins, signed a week ago, "has been in the building a lot" trying to learn the Miami system. That's a good thing. But there are currently no plans to have Watkins replace John Jerry in the starting lineup.

The folks at ProFootballFocus continue to send me more material to pass along to you.

Today's offerings:

QB Ryan Tannehill had the lowest accuracy percentage of any quarterback when under pressure in Week 1.

RB Lamar Miller had 0.0 "Elusive Rating" and didn’t force a missed tackle on any of his 10 rushes

Left tackle Jonathan Martin was 55th out of 65 tackles in Pass Blocking Efficiency in Week 1

Cameron Wake was second in Pass Rush Productivity for 4-3 DEs after leading the league in total pressures.

If you read this blog, you saw Ryan Tannehill answer the Mike Wallace situation of a week ago by promising he would not force the football to the $60 million receiver no matter how much folks want the two becoming a great pitch and catch combination.

Philbin today seemed to give his quarterback some cover on the topic when he said Tannehill's "decision-making was good" in a game he only threw to Wallace five times.

"I thought the ball was going to the right spot throughout the course of the game," Philbin said.

That's interesting because if the quarterback is doing the right thing and making good decisions and that yields only five targets of Mike Wallace, something is amiss in the Dolphins scheme that so easily allows an opposing defense to eliminate the team's deep threat.

This will require more attention going forward.

Finally, the NFL tells me defensive tackle Randy Starks will not be fined by the league for his one-finger salute of the Miami sideline during last Sunday's game at Cleveland. The league says it is a team matter and thus the Dolphins are free to fine or not fine Starks as they deem correct.